CDAO Melbourne schedule

• Getting people excited about model governance
• Setting the foundations
• Making model governance part of our everyday culture
• Empowering people to think differently and ask better questions

Rita Arrigo, representing Australia's National AI Centre at the Department of Industry Science and Resources will present best practices for establishing AI safety and responsibility within organisations. Followed by Bharath Vasudevan, Global VP of Product Management and Marketing at Quest Software, will explore how an integrated Data Governance platform, such as erwin by Quest, can effectively meet business requirements.

Key Topics:

• Principles of Responsible AI: Exploring fairness, accountability, security, and transparency as the foundational pillars for responsible AI usage.
• Utilisation of Data Products: Discussing the attributes, composition, and effective use of data products to enhance AI integration.
• Data Value Scoring and Provenance: Evaluating the importance of data value scoring and understanding data origins to ensure data integrity.
• Integration of Available Data: Strategies to seamlessly incorporate all available data into a unified governance framework.

Research indicates that 75% of knowledge workers globally use generative AI in their daily tasks, with power users reporting increased creativity and focus on key tasks. However, the unsanctioned use of shadow AI poses significant risks, underscoring the importance of governance guardrails.

The Australian government’s interim response to the consultation on safe and responsible AI emphasises the risks associated with "shadow AI," including challenges in change management, third-party data sharing, and "drift." This session will provide practical advice on how organisations can integrate their end-to-end data pipeline—from data modeling to sharing data assets.

Speaker:

Rita Arrigo Strategic Engagement Manager The National AI Centre | Technology and Digital Division

Bharath Vasudevan Global of VP Product Mgmt & Marketing Quest Software

• How do we establish governance over AI?
• Steps to creating an AI council: Considerations and challenges
• Managing ethical risks of AI governance
• Planning assessments and managing data

Moderator:

George Bassili Managing Partner and Data Practice Director IM Systems

Panellists:

Bhavika Unnadkat Head of Data Analytics and Governance EnergyAustralia

Brett Woolley Head of Data Strategy & Governance QBE Insurance

Dr Sophia Frentz Product Manager, Data and Tools Loam Bio

Fernando Mourão Head of Responsible AI Seek

• The Importance of Data Integrity in AI Applications: Understanding how compromised data integrity can lead to flawed AI models, or "bad bots," which can propagate errors and biases across financial systems
• Mitigating Risks in Generative AI Pipelines: Strategies for ensuring high-quality data inputs in AI/ML models to prevent the long-term harmful effects of inaccurate data
• Building a Resilient Data Ecosystem: Developing robust data management frameworks that support reliable and effective AI-driven outcomes
• Case Studies and Real-World Challenges: Examining how major financial institutions address data integrity issues and the implications of these challenges in their AI initiatives
• Confidence in Data-Driven Strategies: Steps that leading financial entities globally can take to ensure their AI initiatives are built on a foundation of trustworthy data

• The AI governance foundation and is it actually different from data governance?
• What are the core tools available?
• What are the best practices in AI governance?

• What can we do within our own teams to safeguard data from breaches?
• Navigating privacy challenges brought about by advancements in Generative AI while maintaining data protection best practices
• How do we prepare for a breach and how should we respond if it happens to us?

Moderator:

Deepak Kannan Associate Director - Group Data Risk Management NAB

Speaker:

Katie James Head of Member Experience - Join & Onboard Flybuys

• Exploring the critical role of data governance in fostering trust and confidence in data assets
• Discussing how well-implemented data governance can enable data-driven decision-making at all organizational levels
• Enhancing operational efficiency and innovation through robust data governance

Moderator:

Dan Goldberg ISO Market Lead Omnicom and Clemenger Group

Panellists:

Leslie Pogson Head of Data and Analytics Catch

Melroy Vanlangenberg Head of Data Governance Australian Unity

Kirsty MacCulloch General Manager, Digital & Data Wesfarmers Health

During this session, the speaker will explore the new trends in data governance and how fine-tuning your governance strategy in the modern era will enhance business prospects.

Some talk-points include:

• What does modern data governance mean to you?
• Promoting governance initiatives to the board and cultivating company-wide support and adoption
• Drawing the link between good governance and good business

• What is CPS230 and how will it affect data?
• How can governance practices support compliance?
• How do we identify critical data?
• From theory to practice – what can we do to support the business?

With so many analytics solutions and flashy new AI features, spotting the difference between a well-rounded horse that can take you forward and a pin-the-AI on the donkey may be difficult. But exploring the great AI expansion doesn’t have to be haphazard. In this session, you’ll hear 4 x recommendations for leaders looking to take the next steps and see ThoughtSpot GenAI in action.

• Evaluating the key trends in AI in 2024
• Prompt engineering techniques, strategies and trends
• Showing proof of value for AI, not just proof of concept – how do we achieve this?
• How can we leverage Generative AI? Is it vastly different from ML or other predictive AI technologies?

Moderator:

Su Jella Winner - Women in AI for APAC, Top 25 Analytics Leaders, Vice President Women’s Tennis Foundation

Panellists:

Leo Lopes Head of Data Science SEEK

Sridhar Deenadayalan Head of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning City Facilities Management

Gina Choutis GM Data & Analytics Vocus

After more than forty years of progress, we stand on the brink of a significant leap in data architecture. Whilst the integration of the Operational and Analytical estates has been an intense challenge, bringing these two estates together is increasingly critical. Data-driven decision-making is not just a competitive advantage but a survival imperative. This talk will explore the milestones of this 40 Year journey, and look at why 2024 marks a special moment: The synchronicity of emerging technologies is finally unifying these 2 estates.

• LLM: what does it mean for business?
• Exploring the challenges of business adoption
• What are the risks?
• How do you get started and get value out of LLMs quickly?

In the ever-expanding realm of artificial intelligence, the choice of data platform becomes more critical than ever. Each major player in the tech industry presents its own AI offerings, each evolving rapidly. To truly capitalise on AI's potential, organisations must embrace cloud portability and open standards, enabling them to access the best tools available, irrespective of the provider.

As businesses embark on their AI journey, they encounter constraints—such as budget limitations and resource scarcity—that hinder their ability to fully harness the value of their ever-expanding data.

This session will delve into:

• Building your AI strategy by leveraging the strengths of diverse AI tools
• How businesses can maximise the value of their data through a multicloud data infrastructure

• How do you envision humans and AI working together in the future? How would we manage AI and people? Where are you at in your AI journey?
• Workforce of the future: What skills do you need to work with AI
• The function of AI and how we should treat it– is it a worker or it a tool?
• Performance reviews with AI? Will we treat AI like an employee and what is the cost element?

Panellists:

Revital Rosenberg Chief Technology Officer Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

Su Jella Winner - Women in AI for APAC, Top 25 Analytics Leaders, Vice President Women’s Tennis Foundation

Michael Storozhev Chief Underwriting Officer PassportCard Australia

Moderator:

George Bassili Deputy Head DAMA Melbourne & Past President DAMA Australia

• How to create algorithms that respect the Social and Intellectual capital in your organisation?
• How can we mitigate the de-personalization and one-size fits all approach of industrial-scale systematization and bureaucracy?
• Solutions and opportunities include Human-machine teaming; collaborative global platforms and trust/no-trust innovation based on clear distinctions between digital/analogue; real/virtual;  private/shared and open-source data.
• She concludes with an outline of ways that AI might help us develop new ecological consciousness around humans and the natural environment. 

In this session, we will examine the main trends and forces that are shaping the business landscape and how AI can help create more value for customers and stakeholders. Some practical tips will be provided to rethink and redesign business models, strategies and processes which are AI powered.

** Speaking under personal capacity

• Leveraging customer data to understand behaviour, preference, and purchase patterns
• Utilising data to optimise supply chain and inventory management
• Understanding the role of data in market expansion, product assortment planning, and pricing strategies
• How can AI positively influence consumer focused strategies?

Moderator:

Durjoy Patranabish Vice President – Head of Global Business Tiger Analytics

Panel:

Ciara McGoohan Chief Customer Officer and Chief Data Analytics Officer Baby Bunting

Dominic O'Halloran Head of Data & Analytics MECCA

Tracy Moore Exec - AI Product Incubation and Ethics Telstra

Nagender Chetti Head of DI Data & Business Intelligence Suncorp

Emerging at the forefront of technological innovation, Generative AI is pivotal in shaping the data landscape, much like the Internet revolution of the 1990s. As global user expectations evolve, the path to unlocking AI's full potential lies in establishing a solid foundation in data management. Central to this foundation is the essential role of Data Governance, which paves the way for a truly democratised data environment grounded in trust, relevance, and security.

Join Informatica alongside LaTrobe University for a collaborative session as we delve deep into the heart of this transformative journey, exploring the power of data intelligence in instigating a positive shift in data culture.

Speakers:

Rohan Thomas Associate Director of Information Management La Trobe University

Quick results may not always be possible, but this session will explore ways to drive results faster and show concept of proof that your data strategies are bringing value to the business.

Key talk points:

• What are the executives and the board expecting from data?
• What value can data bring to organisations? Are there unusual ways to show data’s value?
• How would you show a proof of value for data strategies and what time frames are realistic?

Moderator:

Xi Liang Head of Data and AI Products Judo Bank

Panellists:

Nonna Milmeister Chief Data & Analytics Officer RMIT

Glenn Bunker General Manager, Data & Digital ISPT

Raf Cinaglia Executive Data and Insights, Business and Private Bank NAB

Ana Roy Head of Analytics – Merchandise Kmart

Real world AI and analytics approaches that miss the mark are expensive, miss out on all the benefits they were designed to deliver in the first place, and can even be damaging to your reputation. We discuss some real world examples of failure and success and talk about how small statistical tweaks in your data engineering and analytics approach can dramatically enhance your AI and analytics results.

• AI and analytics approaches reflect and perpetuate bias in data sets, and can thus miss the mark once implemented with real-world inputs
• This is a flaw that has no mathematical solution - statistical techniques should be considered more important than ever
• Should accurate algorithms be less precise?!

Speakers:

Ibbe Qureshi Head of Data Management ANZ

Kshitij (Kris) Nema Senior Manager - Data Risk Services ANZ

• Balancing strategic projects against analytics to run the business
• Prioritisation methodologies
• Stretching lean data and analytics resources
• Building the internal analytics brand to secure long term investment

In the rapidly evolving B2B landscape, leveraging and delivering real-time data is essential for engaging leads and driving sales success. This session will explore how Canva's marketing technology stack harnesses real-time data and AI to optimise lead classification and prioritisation, boosting conversion rates. Discover how Canva leverages Snowflake to deliver B2B outcomes efficiently without the need for complex data infrastructure changes to empower B2B teams.

Hosted by Snowflake

Over the last three years, we have surveyed data leaders throughout Australia about their pain points. The survey results are in! Let's examine the challenges identified by you and your peers and then explore solutions.

Discover how Databricks integrates AI at its core to propel organisations towards their goals faster. 

In this session, you’ll learn:

• Techniques to streamline and simplify your data ecosystem
• Strategies to harness AI for automating routine tasks
• Ways to enhance your organisation’s data experience

You will also get the opportunity to hear directly from Melbourne Airport, a key strategic customer, on their journey to modernising their platform with Databricks. They will share insights on how this transformation improved data discoverability and user productivity, leading to faster insights and greater business efficiency.

Speakers:

Irfan Khan Director of Data and AI Melbourne Airport

AI can elevate your business to the next level of data intelligence, but research shows that only 4% of businesses believe their data is AI-ready. To ensure AI results you can trust, you need accurate, good quality data underpinning it. In this presentation, we’ll explore:

• The impacts of delivering data that is not AI-ready
• The essential data governance & quality considerations that will set you up for AI-success
• Practical solutions to common AI challenges such as AI bias, and lack of contextual relevance

• The human value of data
• Centralised vs. decentralised data and analytics strategies
• The state of AI in healthcare

Unstructured data has emerged as a central focus in the GenAI era, offering remarkable opportunities to boost growth and secure a competitive edge. However, this data also presents significant challenges for Chief Data Officers (CDOs) tasked with its effective governance. Traditional tools prove insufficient for managing unstructured data, necessitating new, unique capabilities to leverage dat in GenAI applications.

Key questions include:

• How can we discover, classify, and catalog unstructured data?
• Which users have access to sensitive data within unstructured datasets?
• What measures can prevent the exposure of sensitive information?
• Is the data relevant, current, and free from duplicates?
• Which policies and regulations are applicable to unstructured data?
• How do we trace the provenance of data from unstructured data systems to GenAI models and endpoints?

Join John Cunningham (Vice President & General Manager APAC and Middle East, Securiti) as he explores how CDOs can adopt a comprehensive approach to unstructured data management, safely unlocking its potential and effectively operationalizing GenAI.

Key takeaways:

• The rise of unstructured data in the GenAI era
• Privacy implications in GenAI
• Challenges faced by CDOs in governing unstructured data
• New governance capabilities required to harness unstructured data for GenAI applications

In this session, we will look at talent capture and retention, with a particular focus around specialist talent and predicting future business talent needs.

Moderator:

Su Jella Winner - Women in AI for APAC, Top 25 Analytics Leaders, Vice President Women’s Tennis Foundation

• How can you empower the CDAO within an organisation?
• Reporting to senior stakeholders and communicating success

• Strategies to win the over management

Moderators:

Guy Feibish Chief Data Officer Australia & New Zealand J.P. Morgan

Leo Lopes Head of Data Science SEEK

Jon Shen AI Practice Executive - Strategy and Governance Suncorp

• Driving data literacy initiatives amongst the leadership ranks – how does AI change this? How do you start and what is the goal?
• Communication is key: Could you get the board to speak your language?
• Kicking off effective literacy projects and initiatives for both data and AI

Moderators:

Dr. Lisa Dethridge RMIT Research fellow RMIT University

Jon Shen AI Practice Executive - Strategy and Governance Suncorp

Neil Coulson Senior Manager Data Literacy Transurban

Rose Skandari Former AI & Data Science Manager bp

Sustainability or a broader view of ESG is no longer a ‘nice to have’ for businesses. There’s a real need for organisations to understand the use cases for ESG data – for public and internal reporting, the upcoming emissions reporting, as well as for insights to help drive decision making. ESG professionals are not necessarily data experts, so how do we collaborate and partner together to ensure that organisations can easily access relevant, timely and accurate data?

Moderator:

Bart Watson Director of BI & Data Team Global Express

Hear how transitioning to Tableau Cloud has empowered over 500 users to make data-driven decisions by reducing time spent on infrastructure and focusing on delivering rapid insights. By developing a new analytics strategy, HESTA has supported diverse internal customers, delivered insights seamlessly through Slack, and shaped the future of their data practice. Learn about the tangible benefits, lessons learned, and the potential of AI in their analytics journey.

Speakers:

Benjamin Warren General Manager - Empowered Intelligence HESTA

Stephane Roman Senior Director, Solution Engineering - Tableau Salesforce

• If yes, what’s changed? If no, why not?
• What do we consider change and was it directly influenced by AI or a natural result of evolving innovation?
• How should we be planning our data foundation moving forward?
• What are examples of practical AI adoption?

Moderator:

Peter O'Donnell Enterprise Data Architect Victoria Legal Aid

Panellists:

Dr David Black Chief Data & Insights Officer (Acting) Flybuys

Darshil Mehta Chief Data & Analytics Officer ASIC

Dr Maruf Hossain Vice President of Data Science ANZ

Tim Sparks Head of Data Science and AI QBE Insurance

Navigating target-setting across the business, from AI integration and governance to ethics.

• How do you align with business goals on a tight budget?
• What are the tips and tricks you use with the resources you have?
• Insights that make the most out of existing resources to grow your organisations data capabilities

Moderator:

Sandeep Shankar Head of Data and Analytics iSelect

Panellists:

Ryan Keeley General Manager Data & Analytics Treasury Wine Estates

Kate Broome General Manager, Data, Innovation & Insights Vicinity Centres

Adam Rentsch Head of Audience Growth & Analytics Cricket Australia

Anoushka Gungadin Executive Vice-President ANZ HeraMED

In this session, we will explore how leadership can shape the effects analytics has on the business. From a business decisioning perspective, the speaker will look at the qualities of a successful analytics leader and how these qualities can be honed to deliver better outcomes and keep pace with the latest trends.

In this session we will explore the challenges and opportunities between innovation versus the needs of governance. How do we focus efforts on both with the resources we have to achieve an excellent data strategy that can weather technological advancements and change?

Key talkpoints:

• The challenges and advantages of innovation and governance
• How can we best prioritise resources under both camps?
• What does the ideal balance look like? What should it achieve?

Moderator:

Kathryn Gulifa General Manager-Data Analytics HBF

Panellists:

Dr Maruf Hossain Vice President of Data Science ANZ

Amanda Princi Head of Data Enablement Transurban

Owen McMahon Head of Privacy, Data Governance & Data Platforms, Advanced Analytics COE Endeavour Drinks Group

Bharath Vasudevan Global of VP Product Mgmt & Marketing Quest Software

• How do you define a data-led culture?
• How do you build and encourage data culture organisation-wide?
• How do you overcome barriers to gain support for building a data-led culture?

Moderator:

George Ibrahim Melbourne Committee DAMA Melbourne

Panellists:

Betty Thai Head of Applications & Data Accent Group

Sandeep Shankar Head of Data and Analytics iSelect

Estelle Liu Head of Retirement Solutions AMP

Bismi Palatty Manager, Data Platforms and Integrations Alfred Health

• Finding the right literacy strategy for your company
• Devising a literacy plan for the next two years
• Maintenance and upkeep: Keeping the organisation up to date with trends, changes and new ideas

Moderator:

Subhrajit Banik Deputy Branch Head DAMA Melbourne

Panellists:

Ian Jackman General Manager Data and Analytics Bendigo and Adelaide Bank

Sneha Sinha Senior Manager Data Strategy and Governance MYOB

Xi Liang Head of Data and AI Products Judo Bank

Rob Deutsch Former COO AkuShaper

This session will cover the organisational drivers and pitfalls when moving from a regulatory driven risk and compliance management focus to a mature data governance capability that supports business outcomes and delivers tangible business benefits, and the challenges of measuring the ROI of those projects.